The Hearthstone World Championship 2026 begins on September 8, with its closing rounds played in front of an audience at BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim, California, Esports.gg reported. Sixteen players are competing for a $500,000 prize pool, of which the winner takes $100,000.
The group stage runs from September 8 to September 10, starting at 9 a.m. PDT each day. Players compete under a four-deck, best-of-five conquest format with a ban, across the three days.
Eight players advance to the knockout stage, held on September 12 and 13 from 11 a.m. PDT each day. The quarterfinals are single elimination and are played on the first of those two days, with the semifinals and the final on the second.
The field
Esports.gg picked out four names from the 16-player field. mlYanming enters as the 2024 Hearthstone world champion and Wu "XiaoT" Juwei as the 2025 champion. Gabriel "Gaby59" Jeanne won Masters Tour 2022 Ruins of Alterac and finished second at the Hearthstone Masters Tour Winter Championship 2026.
Kyle "McBanterFace" Spigelman has extensive major-tournament experience, having won Grandmasters 2021 Season 2 - Americas and the Masters Tour Summer Championship 2025: Americas Playoffs. He placed fourth at the Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer Championship 2026.
Broadcast and viewer rewards
The knockout stage sits inside BlizzCon 2026, an event that also covers Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm. Matches are being streamed on Twitch and YouTube, and both Twitch Drops and YouTube Drops award Escape From Violet Hold card packs to viewers.
The Choose Your Champion promotion went live on September 3 at 10 a.m. PDT. Players who select the right competitor receive additional Escape From Violet Hold packs.